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The Administrative Codes and Registers (ACR) section will hold its annual summer conference in conjunction with the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) summer conference in Minneapolis, MN, July 16-19, 2009. Meetings will be held Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. This shorter schedule was approved by the NASS Executive Board to reduce travel-related expenses for attendees.
Registration for the conference is available online at http://www.nass.org/ (or directly at http://nass.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=93&Itemid=299). The early registration deadline is June 15, 2009.
ACR Program Chair, Debbie Ritzko (NY), has put together a great agenda. The tentative agenda includes:
- West Publishing Site Visit
- User Friendly E-Government – Spencer Gerrol and Jeff Horvath, Phd., Human Factors International
- Website Usability-Designing Simple & Effective: Getting There Step-by-step – Spencer Gerrol and Jeff Horvath, Phd., Human Factors International
- Colborn Award and Demonstration
- Rules and Regulation / Laws comparison – Elizabeth Palen, Virginia Legislature
- Roundtable: Impact of Fiscal and/or organizational change – Dan Proctor, Texas Register and Kevin Fetherston, BNA
- Model State Administrative Procedure Act Update, John Martinez, Director, Administrative Law Division, New Mexico Commission of Public Records – State Records Center and archives
- Authentication of On-line State Legal Materials Michelle Timmons, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes
- Creating on-line forms, evolution of on-line forms – Scott Cancelosi
- Minnesota Rule Making
See http://www.administrativerules.org/ for agenda updates.
Uniform Law Commission (ULC) leadership has granted the Model State Administrative Procedure Act (MSAPA) drafting committee an extension. The MSAPA was to have been completed and up for final approval at this summer’s ULC conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico, July 9 – 16, 2009.
In an e-mail announcing the decision, John Sebert, ULC Executive Director, said:
This July [2009] the Committee will read the rulemaking provisions – Articles 2, 3, 7 and the relevant definitions in Article 1 – and after them as many of the judicial review provisions of Articles 4, 4A, 5 and 6 (and the related definitions in Article 1) as time permits. Consideration in July 2010 will be focused almost exclusively on the judicial review provisions. MSAPA will have its final consideration, and a vote by the states, in July 2010.
A copy of the current draft and related information is available online at http://www.nccusl.org/Update/CommitteeSearchResults.aspx?committee=234.
The Uniform Law Commission (ULC) has scheduled the final Model State Administrative Procedure Act (MSAPA) drafting committee meeting for March 27-29, 2009, in Chicago, IL. The Committee is scheduled to discuss rulemaking and rules review issues at the meeting. John Martinez, New Mexico Administrative Law Division Director, will represent Administrative Codes and Registers at the meeting.
Senator Howard Stephenson, co-chair of Utah’s legislative Administrative Rules Review Committee, is sponsoring a bill to enlarge the role of the committee in new ways. S.B. 64, entitled “Administrative Rules Review Committee,” expands the authority of the committee to include the review of “any appropriation made by the Legislature … to ensure that the entity to which the funds were appropriated complies with any expressed legislative intent concerning the appropriation.” Under the provisions of the bill, the Committee reports its findings of noncompliance to the Legislature’s Executive Appropriations Committee. The bill does not authorize any other direct action by the Administrative Rules Review Committee.
Utah created its Administrative Rules Review Committee in 1983. The ten-member legislative committee currently has authority to review proposed and effective administrative rules and to prepare omnibus legislation to reauthorize administrative rules every year (see H.B. 197 for this year’s reauthorization bill). More information about Utah’s Administrative Rules Review Committee is available at http://www.rules.utah.gov/arrc.htm.
UPDATE – 3/12/2009 — S.B. 64 encountered opposition in the House due to concerns that the additional authority to review appropriations (expenditures) would diminish the Administrative Rules Review Committee’s focus on administrative rules. Rep. Ben Ferry, House Chair of the Administrative Rules Review Committee, sponsored H.J.R. 23, amending joint legislative rules, giving the authority to review appropriations directly to the Legislature’s Executive Appropriations Committee.
The Uniform Law Commission’s drafting committee to revise the Model State Administrative Procedure Act (MSAPA) will meet November 14 through 16, 2008, in Denver, CO. Information that the committee will consider is posted online at http://www.nccusl.org/Update/CommitteeSearchResults.aspx?committee=234. The draft MSAPA is scheduled for its final reading at the Summer ULC meeting scheduled for July 9 through 16, 2009, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Members of Administrative Codes and Registers (ACR), a section of the National Association of Secretaries of State, elected new officers at a business meeting held July 27, 2008. Julie Yamaka (OR) will serve as president; John Martinez (NM) will serve as vice president; and Scott Cancelosi (AZ) will serve as secretary/treasurer/historian. ACR elects its officers to two-year terms.
ACR Officers: Scott Cancelosi (AZ), Julie Yamaka (OR), and John Martinez (NM)
On July 27, 2008, Administrative Codes and Registers (ACR) recognized the work of the Arkansas Secretary of State’s Office and Jon Davidson for their work to make Arkansas rules accessible.
Jon Davidson (AR, left) receives Colborn Award from Dennis Stevenson (ID, right).
Jon Davidson (AR; left) receives the Colborn award from Dennis Stevenson (ID; Colborn Committee Chair; right).
Of Arkansas’ and Mr. Davidson’s efforts, Mr. Stevenson observed:
The Arkansas Register is a bit of a Cinderella story and, while technically this system is not as elaborate or complex as many we’ve seen in other states, the fact that Jon was dedicated to elevating the Arkansas Register to its proper place in the hierarchy of Arkansas state government documents reflects not only why ACR created the Robert J. Colborn, Jr. Innovation Award, but goes to the very core of what ACR is and why it exists. What has happened with the Arkansas Register is a great example of a rising ACR ocean lifting all boats.
As [the awards] committee, we recognized that for each state that has a state of the art electronic system, there is another state where the Code and Register editors are still in the trenches fighting to make its own government understand the importance of its administrative rules and the difference they make in people’s lives. The Arkansas Register has shown the importance of making a state’s rules and policies available to the public and that open government always makes for better government.
More information is available from the AR Secretary of State’s Office, and from ACR’s web site.
Administrative Codes and Registers will be meeting with the National Association of Secretaries of State at its annual conference in Grand Rapids, MI, July 25 through July 28, 2008. This conference marks ACR’s 30th anniversary. ACR was formed in 1978 in St. Louis, MO. The ACR conference agenda is available at http://www.nass.org/acr/acr.html.
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) has recently issued two reports looking at Federal rulemaking.
- February 11, 2008: RL34354 — Congressional Influences on Rulemaking Through Appropriations Provisions
- February 12, 2008: RL34355 — The Regulatory Flexibility Act: Implementation Issues and Proposed Reforms
The CRS does not make its reports available directly to the public. Open CRS — a “project of the Center for Democracy and Technology, … provides citizens access to CRS Reports that are already in the public domain” at http://opencrs.cdt.org/.
The following notice is provided by Commissioner Francis J. Pavetti, Chair of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws Model State Administrative Procedure Act Drafting Committee.
The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) is revising its Model State Administrative Procedure Act (MSAPA). NCCUSL invites organizations and individuals interested in state administrative agency processes to participate in this effort.
NCCUSL is a 117 year old national organization of lawyers, judges and law professors who are appointed to represent their states in drafting and seeking enactment of uniform laws to facilitate commerce and certainty in the law among the states. For more information about NCCUSL, visit http://www.nccusl.org/.
The goal of the MSAPA drafting committee is to make the administrative process more efficient, accessible and fair. The most recent draft of MSAPA is available at http://www.nccusl.org/Update/CommitteeSearchResults.aspx?committee=234. The drafting process will not be completed until the spring of 2009. The MSAPA drafting committee invites interested parties to attend committee meetings as an observer and make comments and suggestions at the meetings or by submitting them in writing. To become an observer, please contact Ms. Leang Sou at NCCUSL at (312) 915-0488 or at leang.sou@nccusl.org . Submit written comments about the MSAPA to Commissioner Francis J. Pavetti, 18 The Strand, Goshen Point, Waterford, CT 06385.
UPDATE: The NCCUSL office moved the first week of January. The new phone number is (312) 450-6606.
